13. Memorandum From Vice President Bush to the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Carlucci)1
RE
- Phone Call from Don Kendall2 January 16th 1987
“I3 recently spent a full day with Dobrynin, and subsequently have had two calls from him. I will be staying with Dobrynin and his wife in Moscow next month—both Bim4 and I.”
A summation of the substance of his call:
Changes in Soviet Union are very rapid. The full court press is on on all this consumer stuff and Gorbachev is totally committed to internal change.
Vorontsov is “Dobrynin’s boy”. He is flexible and has authority. Kendall was critical of the Kampelman move, feeling that in spite of the promotion Max will not be seen as anything other than continuation of normal Geneva talks.
We need new approach, says Don, as he argues for separate channel. He said “We sent nine people over there and they couldn’t even agree with themselves.” The Soviets saw this and were unimpressed.
The only way to get the progress that Kendall is convinced the Soviets want is to ‛get it out of the bureaucracy.’ We ought to assign one person to do it—to go and to listen—one person who has the clear link to the President. That’s what the Soviets want, says Don K.
- Source: Reagan Library, Carlucci Files, The Vice President. No classification marking. A note on the memorandum indicates that it was “self-typed.” Bush sent the copy to Carlucci under a January 19 typed note, in which he stated, “This is a call for a special channel obviously stimulated by Dobrynin.” (Ibid.)↩
- CEO of PepsiCo.↩
- The “I” is in reference to Kendall.↩
- Reference is to Kendall’s wife, Bim.↩